continue days before america's cliff-mas. the gop plan b has a veto promise from the president which is unlikely to happen because it will never make it out of the senate alive. all of that falling on deaf ears where the house will convene this hour to vote on boehner's plan b. his hail mary back-up plan would extend it on people who earn 1 million or less and it is a tax rate on those who earn 1 million or less and one day after the talks dissolved from competing news connence 1ferencesconferen. it was so fast you kind of blinked and missed it. >> the house will pass legislation to make permanent tax relief for nearly every american. 99.81% of the american people and then the president will have a decision to make. he can call on the senate democrats to pass that bill or he can be responsible for the

largest tax increase in american history. >> president obama told reporters earlier in the day the republicans were putting the need to personally best him over what's best for the country. >> they keep on finding ways to say no as opposed to finding ways to say yes and i don't know how much of that just has to do with, you know, it is very hard for them to say yes to me. but, you know, at some point they have to take me out of it and think about their voters and think about what's best for the country. >> with five days until christmas and 12 days until the fiscal grinch comes to town, is plan b just part of the posturing or a real push over the precipice? >> what's happening here is speaker boehner cannot sell a reasonable compromise to what is a very right wing extreme tea party caucus.

>> clearly, the republicans know that what they're doing today is simply a waste of time. this is not -- this is the lamest of congresses. >> hopefully, i mean, all of us are hoping that speaker boehner and president obama are talking more behind the scenes than we know. >> joining me now is california congressman adam scheffler, a member of the house appropriations committee. it's great to have you with me and to pass along, we have the rundown of what the voters will have. the timing on the vote on plan b is roughly at 7:30 to 8:00 tonight and 217 is the number and plan b can pass even if it loses around 20 gop votes and leadership on the left has indicated that there are many democrats that may be voting for it. so why fan these political flames from the left if the president is against it from the get go? >> i think it's really a

complete waste of time and i don't know yet speaker is bringing this forward. if it had the merit of at least giving his members some political cover so that he being give them a harder deal later, i would say fine, but i don't know how it accomplishes that. it's going nowhere in the senate. so it will not increase his bargaining position and if it doesn't increase leverage within its own conference, 14s, we're just wasting time and that's a shame because we don't have much team left and we need to avoid going over the cliff and this is an unproductive -- and nbc is reporting that the big problem for speaker boehner and these negotiations is ref now. then we're suggesting that john boehner would agree if the white house got closer to the $1 trillion mark. a lot of people think the final area will be 1.2 trillion. >> you know, i certainly will keep an open mind on it.

it certainly depends on what else is in the package. many of us don't like the idea that we would lower the threshold and the president has essentially agreed to go from 250 to 400,000 and pay for that by cutting benefits to seniors and that seems like an awful chose to make to say to protect tax cuts for some wealthy families who will reduce benefits and reduce income for people struggling to get by. i hope that's not the direction he goes in, and frankly, i think the president has already bent over backwards. what i favor and what many democrats favor is a one to one increase in revenue in additional spending cuts, but we are now talking about 1.2 trillion and additional cuts on top of 1 trillion in cuts we agreed to and that's 2.2 trillion in cuts for 1.2 in revenues and we're not even yet at agreement. so i think the president has really offered something more than balanced, more than half

way as he said yesterday and i think what it really will take is the speaker bringing a bipartisan proposal to the house and not simply relying on the majority of his own members because with those tea party caucus members he's just not going to be able to bring them along. >> again, this reminder, 7:30 tonight plan b will get the vote and something this afternoon is vice president joe biden holding his first meeting of the administration's new gun task force. i want to show everybody this new cnn/orc poll showing americans are in favor of restrictions to gun ownership. 37%, major restrictions. minor restrictions, 33%. only 13% of the country believe there should be no restrictions at all i and want to remind everybody how the president addressed this issue at a news conference. >> this is not some washington commission. this is not something where folks will be studying the issue for six months and publishing a report that gets read and then

pushed aside. >> we all know you were with nancy pelosi at her conference on gun control. do you think the president will get something done and real reform in a timetable of january? >> yes, i do. there's a real sense of urgency around the country and just a horrible fatigue with the calamity after calamity and tragedy after tragedy and this is the time when we have to come together as a country and do something meaningful not only it address the type of military-style assault weapons and ammunition clips and loopholes with gun shows and do something with the respect with the enormous amount of gun violence more generally, and i hope we will have a broad approach to the problem that goes after some of these weapons that don't belong in the street and it goes after some of the more everyday kind of violence we see throughout america. >> congressman adam schif, sir,

thanks for making time for me. >> thank you. we want to say good morning to the political power panel and jen socky, former traveling press secretary for the obama campaign and republican strategist chip salesman. it's great to have all three of you here. grover nor quist is giving cover to john boehner, thumbs up from grover backing his plan b saying it doesn't violate the overall anti-tax pledge and conservative groups like the heritage action fund are urging republicans to vote no on this. don't give in to any tax hike at all. does the speaker have the votes? >> yes. i think my understanding is this bill will pass tonight and it will be closer to the speaker and he'll lose some republican votes and some republicans will vote for it as well and this is part of the posturing campaign. you saw that a little bit yesterday with president obama and also boehner. they're both negotiating in public to figure out there will be tax increases at some kind,

and the question is where do they start? the president is at 400,000 and boehner is at 1 million. the president is flustered and he feels he's giving enough and boehner is resisting because of the tea party members in his house. >> right now the republican brand is taking a hit about being too extreme and the new cnn/orc poll finding americans do think the republican party is too extreme. we have congressman john fleming telling roll call of today's vote, i think there's sort of an intuitive feeling on our side and i don't necessarily agree with it that we want to mitigate as much damage as possible. chip, is that what's behind this strategy here? does speaker john boehner have a bigger play in mind? something for the longer game? >> think that may have something to do with it, but the speaker does have a longer game in mind and revenue has to start in the house and this is a starting point as far as the speaker is concerned and he can say it after this bill passes and he can go to the president and say we've passed something and it's

in the senate and see what's next. >> this is d.o.a. and the starring point, why? i will have the it if it ever got out of the senate according to harry road. we know where the problems are, look, with the democrats they don't want to increase spending anymore. >> they're increasing taxes. they're increasing taxes. >> they have to start somewhere and the boehner play here is in the house we've acted, we've done something and now it's the senate's move. >> here's what congressman chris van holland said earlier on "jansing & co" about the democrats in the white house. >> the democrats in the house have heartburn and many are willing to take what is a compromise, recognizing that you don't get everything your way. >> so chip brings up this could be a starting point with the house working on this plan b bill to look like they're

working in good path. they've gone from $1.4 trillion in revenue and the white house said income over 250 and they moved to 400,000 and social security cuts, they're on the table and progressives are furious about that and medicarel ijity aides and progressives are mad about that. what more can the president and the white house give in to make this happen. as we look at the clock, the time is running out and lo and behold, we're getting into january and we'll go over the cliff. >> i think republicans would love this and it's hard to tell whether the b stands for bluff, baloney or just plain bad. this is a stalling tactic and the american people who are wrapping christmas who the grinch is. he's tan and from ohio. he's delaying the process and delaying the discussion. the democrats and president obama have come pretty far. you've talked about the topics. sausage making is suggly. it always is. everybody wants to get through this and there's no way that this ridiculous house bill is

going to be a starting point. it's going to be back to, you know, what the president and congressman boehner have been discussing and i expect they'll restart the discussion and it's been delayed. >> sausage making is ugly, and we've been watching how ugly this is for some time now and there is little time left to make sure this gets done especially with everybody in washington that want to scurry out of there tomorrow after the work day. so is there really enough time to do this? >> i do think there is. when you look over the weekend there is progress being made with speaker boehner and president obama. i think they're closer than they're saying and like jen said and what chip said this vote is not a real vote and this is part of the negotiation. boehner needs to show that the republicans in the house that he's fighting these tax increases hard. and we know there will be a tax increase and we don't know exactly the number and that's the negotiation and i think that will happen january 1st. >> is the grinch this year not green and just tan?

>> i don't think we make much progress calling the speaker names. when we're talking about this, he is having a hard time. he's got 235 republicans. he's got the democrats to deal with. he's trying to get anything he can get to get to 18 and that is a big challenge so when he's negotiating with the white house and the senate leaders which i know they're not talking right now, the speaker has the toughest job because he has the most individual votes. >> as the white house watching this, is communication broken it's a bluff? that they're much closer than people from the outside think. >> they need to get to a point where they can agree on some basic renew numbers and basic cut numbers. the president's come pretty far. back in 2011 when they were close to a big deal, he put a lot of entitlement cuts on the table and the democrats didn't love. we know democrats and

republicans need to hold hands and the question is speaker boehner has the political will. three of my fifes. thanks for being here. >> thanks, thomas. a crippling snowstorm hitting the u.s. days before the holidays is having a major impact on travel and plus in the spotlight the state department's failures during the benghazi attack and senator john kerry, the man who could soon become the head of that department and then our big question, 12 days to cliff-mas. do you have faith in a deal or will the fiscal cliff steal christmas? join me on facebook. ♪

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the travel crunch, a major winter storm snarling flights in the midwest. chicago's o'hare airport says arriving flights are delayed more than two hours. the delays will likely cause ripple effects across the country, but most major airlines are enacting flexible rebooking policies like waiving those extra fees for people scheduled to fly directly into the storm's path, that is. and this massive system is affecting more than half of the country. in the north people are preparing for up to a foot of snow one day before the official start of winter, severe storms moving through alabama, florida and georgia with high winds peeling off roofs and knocking out power to thousands there and no reports of major injury and part of the same system stretching from the gulf coast to the great lakes. weather channel meteorologist mike seidel joins me from wisconsin, delles, wisconsin. >> reporter: eight inches and counting and the snow not

blowing particularly hard. we are going to get whacked here through the afternoon with heavier snow and the key here is the wind picking up. we've had gusts 20 to 21 miles an hour. we've had white-out conditions and we have parts of six states under blizzard warnings continuing through at least midnight tonight and maybe after that and even once the snow ends we get the blowing and drifting snow. adar right now. you'll see that it's green. we've had rain in chicago and milwaukee. milwaukee will change over first and after 4:00, 5:00, by dinner time it will be your first measurable snow of the season and the latest on record and that will end your record snow streak of 290 days, but the damage has been done with the rain and the snow coming in. they've canceled over 150 flights in and out of o'hare. back here, we've got the plow scraping up another several

inches and he pushes it across and he tries to get across here and he's spinning out, too, and pushes it across this side road and this feet of road and over toward u.s.-12. traffic moving okay today at this point, but again, once the wind starts howling we'll have big issues. >> mike seidel reporting from dells, wisconsin. thanks so much. i want to take everybody straight to washington, d.c. for remarks by eric cantor. >> the bill is designed to stop fraud and eliminate waste and frankly, to replace the sequester indiscriminate at cuts and aimed at trying to protect national security and also to drive toward the underlying issue that faces this country which is the mounting deficit and load of debt that we're going to leave this generation and the next. we are committed in the house, as you know to address the underlying problem which is the spending and that's why we're

bringing this goal forward. together, with our vote today, to extend permanent tax relief in the middle class for the middle class and small businesses, we house republicans are taking concrete actions to avoid the fiscal cliff. absent a balanced offer from the president, this is our nation's best option and senate democrats should take up both of these measures immediately and the president has a decision to make. he can support these measures or be responsible for reckless spending and the largest tax hike in american history. i'll take some questions. yes? >> do you think you have the votes to pass the plan? >> yes. we'll have the votes to pass both the permanent tax relief bill as well as the spending reduction. >> are you worried that by having your members vote on this $1 billion cutoff you are making it --

[ inaudible ] >> the nation faces the largest tax increase in history come january 1, 2013. this bill is a bill that provides permanent tax relief for taxpayers earning $1 million and under. we protect 99.81% of american taxpayers from a tax increase in these very difficult economic times. we hope that the senate will take this bill up along with the spending reduction act and get the job done in lieu of or absent any kind of agreement coming from the white house. we are again, taking concrete actions to avoid the fiscal cliff. >> the house leader -- house majority leader eric cantor taking questions about the two votes that will take place today. the two different bills that are coming up in the house. the sequester replacement cuts bill which will replace the automatic cuts scheduled to go into effect for the state department in 2013 and the plan b which was presented by house

speaker boehner which will extend the bush-era tax cuts for those making less than $1 million. it is a tax hike, though, for those making over $1 million. the president has said he will use his veto power if it made it out of the senate, but plan b is doa. we will talk more about that because coming up, congress will hold more hearings today on the benghazi attack without hearing from secretary of state hillary clinton and the man who with could take her place rises to her defense. however, will hillary clinton soon testify? ♪ i'd like to thank eating right, whole grain, multigrain cheerios! mom, are those my jeans? [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan.

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we love to travel -- and there's so much more to see. so we found a plan that can travel with us. anywhere in the country. [ male announcer ] join the millions of people who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp, an organization serving the needs of people 50 and over for generations. remember, all medicare supplement insurance plans help cover what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you thousands a year in out-of-pocket costs. call now to request your free decision guide. and learn more about the kinds of plans that will be here for you now -- and down the road. i have a lifetime of experience. so i know how important that is. o0 meet the 5-passenger ford c-max hybrid. when you're carrying a lot of weight, c-max has a nice little trait, you see, c-max helps you load your freight, with its foot-activated lift gate.

but that's not all you'll see, cause c-max also beats prius v, with better mpg. say hi to the all-new 47 combined mpg c-max hybrid. can i still ship a gift in time for christmas? yeah, sure you can. great. where's your gift? uh... whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. ship fedex express by december 22nd for christmas delivery. a short time ago on capitol hill, a hearing wrapped up to determine what went wrong during the september 11th attacks on the u.s. embassy in benghazi, libya. that attack killed u.s. ambassador chris stevens and three other americans and at the very start of that hearing john kerry came to the defense of secretary of state hillary clinton under fire from someone on the right for not testifying

today due to illness. >> secretary clinton is recovering from a serious virus and concussion and given her condition it was simply not possible for her to appear here today. i assure you it is not her choice that she is not here today and she looks forward to appearing before the committee in january. >> the co-chair of that committee senator bob corker indicated he still wants to hear from secretary clinton herself. >> i think it's imperative that she come before this committee and i think it would be a shame to turn the page on this and go to a new regime without her being here and i do look forward to that happening when her health permits. >> mark, it's good to have you here. senator corker calling for clinton's testimony, meanwhile, the fallout from benghazi and the attacks from this report continues yesterday where three state department officials, they resigned because of it, but i do want to play for everybody more

of the hearing itself and this sharp exchange between bob corker and state department officials who appeared to secretary clinton's behalf. >> secretary clinton just sent up a notification asking for $1.3 billion, why did she never ask for any notification or change of resources to make sure benghazi was secured? why did that not happen? you all have had 18 arbs in the past and you have never fully implemented one yet. not one. so i don't want to talk about this arb. i want to talk about why. >> three state department people resigning, let go because of this report, basically, having tendered their resignation and three people sent to the hill instead of clinton. is secretary clinton the only one who can put this to rest by appearing and testifying? >> i guess they just want her to have to walk the plank, so to

speak, but the problem is not the secretary. the problem is the management that the state department and the foreign service the -- the foreign service offices who treat other foreign service requests as shut up and take your castor oil. >> how do you think, though, the findings which the secretary of state said they accept all of them and all of the recommendations to be implemented will help thwart something like this from happening in the future. we all know what took place in libya, a country in complete unsxreft moammar gadhafi out of power and does it mean that we're going to have a smarter footprint in libya and countries like it in the future. >> i hope so, thomas, but i think the report and i served in the management bureau and the state department years ago, and i have a real understanding of the inner workings of the building and i'm disappointed in the report and i'll tell you why. the report doesn't list how many times the state department mission in ben gassy and in

tripoli under ambassador stevens asked for security assistance that was denied by the state department. i would like to know how many times those requests were turned down. i also want to know how many of my colleagues in the middle east have also asked for enhanced security that was turned down by the management at the state department. so these -- this information and maybe it's in the annex, the classified annex, but inquiring minds want to know want took place and other places in the middle east. >> as we talked about senator kerry, what role is he playing beyond his role and his credibility to possible new confirmation to the new secretary of state. >> as secretary of state he not only has management over foreign approximately see, but he also has to manage the foreign service and manage the budget of the state department and its operations and i think there's no doubt anyone who objectively looks at the funding of the state department, it always seems to be the first kid to be

licked whenever there's an effort to cut the budget. there needs to be a resource-driven effort to try to fix the problems that exist and as we all agree, he would be a great secretary of state and i would be honored to be of any help in this. i think he has to navigate how to put the bureau of the state department back in place that protects the foreign service and the reputation of the building abroad because in security enhancement, thomas, the problems that we rely on foreign militias to protect our embassies and that has got to change. >> ambassador mark ginsburg. thank you, sir. >> thank you, thomas. >> we want to show you live pictures of the capitol rotunda where senator inouye lies in state. he died on monday from

respiratory complications at a ceremony this morning and this is a video of that and joe biden talks about the legacy that inouye leaves behind. >> he was, in every certain, the quint essential american. he possessed, in my view, every virtue that we like to as krieb to our country. >> in our nation's history only 31 people have lane in the capitol rotunda. coming up, is there a plan c for house speaker boehner's plan b. the vote is happening tonight scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and not all are onboard. he'll join me next and ron barber was at the tucson shooting that injured hiss about gabi giffords and now he is fighting for big change. if the mayans are right, the world is coming to an end tomorrow, december 21 the. we've seen thousands arrested

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seven dollar trades are just the start. our teams have the information you want when you need it. it's another reason more investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade. in newtown, connecticut, two funerals, two wakes and they include a funeral for 6-year-old catherine hubbard and 6-year-old benjamin andrew wheeler and ann marie, and rachel davino and 6-year-old jesse lewis. 6-year-old emily parker who loved teaching her little sisters to read and making cards to help people lift their spirits. hundreds paid their respects to the principal of sandy hook dawn

hochsprung who reportedly died trying to stop the gunmen. we are hearing from some of the first responders. this from msnbc news. >> when we saw how many people were responding we got a sense that it was urgent. >> seeing the faces on other side of the scene tape and the emotion on those faces was difficult to see. >> a 25-year-old veteran might not have seen what was going on that day. tomorrow the nra will give its first news conference since the sandy hook tragedy and yesterday president obama made this personal plea at a powerful gun lobby group announcing his new task force to curb gun violence. >> the nra is an organization who has members that are mothers and fathers, and i would expect that they've been impacted by this, as well and hopefully they'll do some self-reflection. >> last night the host of the nra news webcast responded to the president.

>> when you look at the president he mentioned he's going to tackle this on all fronts, but the majority of his press conference today was about guns. >> you can ban whatever you want. he'll find something else to get. if he can't get his hands on that, he'll find something else. >> joining me now arizona congressman ron barber and he was with gabi giffords when she was wounded in the tucson shootings last year. i appreciate it. >> i think in the become ground there's some carolling going there. some background music for this interview. the president is calling on the new congress to hold votes on january on the following items. i want to show it to everybody, calling for a reduction of high-capacity clips, those high-magazine clips for weapons and closing the gun show loopholes and assault weapons on the table and getting them off the streets and you wrote an op-ed and the path is apparent.

do you think the president will be able to get a bill on this and something with teeth to make the country feel a little safer? >> i certainly hope so and i intend to provide as much leadership and support for that way forward as i can. i come to this issue from a number of perspectives. as someone who was shot and wounded along with 18 others, six of whom died on january 8th, i saw firsthand the impact that high-capacity clips can have. 30 bullets fired in 45 succesec brought us all down and what happened on friday is even more significant as to what these assault weapons can do in the wrong hands and i want to approach this on two levels. first of all, i do believe that we need to prevent people from having access to weapons of that kind of fire power and these are military-style weapons and the

clips are assault clips. people don't need that to defend themselves and these are to help them shoot others and secondly and i think equally as important, we must do more about mental health services. we've been talking about this since january 8th, my family formed a foundation to go after the issue of mental health services and bullying issues. we have to address the issue of mental health treatment, early identification and prevention and services that will prevent people from doing this. virtually every tragedy of this magnitude since january last year has had two factors. significant firepower from assault-style weapons and a person with mental illness at the serious end of that scale has not been treated or diagnosed. >> one thing we're still learning are the details about the lanza family dynamics and what was really going on in that

household. we do know that the shooter was suffering from certain challenges throughout his young life and that his mom was trying to be a strong supporter to get him the help he needed. she was a gun enthusiast and taught him to respect weapons that they had in their house to their own detriment and you are a second amendment supporter, but when we talk about what it means to have these weapons on the street, the high-magazine cartridges like the glock that was used to shoot you. when we look at the graphic, and i want to show everybody on this graphic, where the u.s. stands on gun ownership it's pretty startling. per capita, the u.s. stands at 89. the next country that's even close to us is yemen with 55 guns per 100 people. yemen, when we think of yemen it's a tribal land. we usually talk about yemen being a hotbed of terrorist

activities and we outpace them in gun ownership 2 to 1. what do you think is the logical approach here because it seems there's great resistance on the right especially coming from the nra that we're still waiting to hear from, but there's great resistance it to any type of common-sense approach to getting assault weapons off the street. >> i hope we can separate the issue. hunters should be able to have their weapons. people should be able to have weapons for their own self-defense. what i'm talking about is preventing access to those weapons that really are used primarily in the military or by our police forces around the country who are defending us either abroad or at home. i don't believe there's a place for those, for people to have access to those across the country for other than those purposes. so i think we have to go do what we did in 1994 which was to

eliminate the availability of these weapons and also, as i said before, to make sure we treat mental health aspect of this issue in a very profound way. i think there's common ground that could be found here. just the other day, senator manchin who was a very strong supporter of the nra and gun rights came out and said, finally, we need to do something. there's a house task force that we have to be part of. earlier today i met with representatives of the national organizations that are advocates for mental health services and we're going to work together to put together a package of bills that will help on that side of the issue. i believe that we can and must achieve bipartisan support for removing the availability or assault access for extended clips and they have no place in the defense of individuals or in the world of hunting. so i believe we can find common

ground on that. >> congressman ron barber, thank you, sir. i want to pass along this programming note that the nra news conference will be held at 10:45 a.m. eastern time tomorrow and this note, too. "meet the press" has this exclusive interview with wayne lapierre this sunday, his first since the newtown shooting. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it... in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. great taste. mmm... [ male announcer ] sounds good. it's amazing what soup can do.

♪ don't know what i'd do ♪ i'd have nothing to prove [ male announcer ] zales is the diamond store. save 25 percent off an amazing selection storewide, now through monday. hours from now the house will vote on speaker john boehner's plan b. and to pull that bill. >> the american people did not re-elect the conservative house of representatives to become tax collectors for barack obama's welfare state. >> we supported challengers who were opposed to t.a.r.p. we were opposed to the debt deal 2011 and this is the sort of vote that we'll look at closely when we look at our options in 2014. >> a whole lot of members who thought they were safe and who thought they could get axe way

with this will lose in their own districts. >> joining me now is one of the lawmakers from that news conference, congressman tim hulscamp. and grover norquist in his group has come out in support of plan b. why do you oppose it? >> i think the support from of groer is i ee eer that he viola plan and what is plan b is probably plan c. it changed overnight because of conservative opposition that tried to piece enough votes to pass it, but don't forget, plan a is still under way. the speaker is still negotiating with the president and what disturbs conservatives the most is very little, if any, spending cuts have been discussed and we haven't voted on those on the floor and the trillion dollar tax cut is still a hike and it will raise rates to what nancy

pelosi suggested it may. >> so you are against any tax race at all to create new revenue? >> absolutely, and what i am in favor of is all americans have their own taxes and what americans are concerned about is economists on both sides of the aisle recognize raising taxes cost jobs and why would we raise 70% on small business income which is what the threshold does which will cost tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of jobs. >> with speaker boehner coming up with plan b, he's saying that this will keep people that you refer to as the job creators in this country in good step, financially in good step by raising taxes in those making over $1 million. why is there no wiggle room that you will provide the speak or this? >> it deals with incomes $1 million and over and that would apply to 41% of small business

income anywhere from 300 to 400,000 small businesses that will fall in the category and see their taxes go up and they'll employ less folks, but i know that's what the speaker gave to the president over the weekend. it wasn't approved by the conference and we'll see later today if they'll affirm what would be a real mistake and that's the republicans that say, hey, we'll accept higher taxes on the select class of folks, and i think we're going in the wrong direction. we should have broad-based tax reform and we shouldn't start focussing and targeting a select group of people. >> congressman, thank you, sir. i appreciate it. here's a look at the stories topping the news. they're criticizing the makers of "zero dark thirty," the documentary on the killing of osama bin laden. torture did not lead officials to bin laden's location. they have the obligation to get

the facts right. the new owner, atlanta-based intercontinental exchange little will change if they approve that deal. today will likely be the bizzest why shipping day for ups. the company expecting to deliver 28 million packages today alone and that's about 300 packages each second. this also is the busiest week for fedex with shipping on monday. miss usa is now miss universe. the 20-year-old won the competition in las vegas and she's the first american miss universe in 15 years. threats of violence and the doomsday rumors forcing some schools to cancel classes and these cancel classes. this affects 33 different districts in michigan. school officials say the threats turned out to be false, but apocalypse rumors are seriously distracting students and the staff. meanwhile, in france police are keeping people away from one village that some say will be the only area to survive.

doom's day now on the myan calendar, it's tomorrow. in china officials arrested nearly 1,000 cult members for spreading rumors about the end of the world. the ancient myans believed that the end of the world will happen on 2012. look at the clock right there. it's 5:50 a.m. in ahs rail why. time for sunrise, and lo and behold, they are all still there, so hope is out for us for tomorrow. we're back after this. icken potp and it's so rich and creamy... is it really 100 calories? let me put you on webcan... ...lean roasted chicken... and a creamy broth mmm i can still see you. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

hello. mmm i can still see you. it's water from the drinking fountain at the mall. great tasting water can come from any faucet anywhere. the brita bottle with the filter inside.

>> not the making sfwleen of the year. it's time for the poli side bar. at the same time also appeared to criticize herself. >> time making sfwleen, you know, i think there's some irrelevancy there, to tell you the truth. consider their list of the most influential people in the country and the world. some who have made that list. yours truly. ought to tell you something right there regarding the credence that we should give time magazine and their list of

people. >> such self-deprecating humor. so we now know that new jersey governor chris christie loved the boss, but we already move that, though. apparently, though, he was not born to run. at least not in this presidential election. he said i wasn't ready to run for president this time, and he went on to say if it comes, i know that i will be more ready for it than i would have been this year. superhero to senator. cory booker says he will not run for new jersey's governor role. instead he will likely run for senate. the seat currently held by frank lautenburg. >> i will complete my full second term as mayor of newark, new jersey, and as for my political future, i will explore the possibility of running for the united states senate in 2014. >> booker is active in the community, rescuing people from fires, digging them out of snow banks, all on twitter, and even living on food stamps for a week. that's going to wrap things up for me. thanks for your time.

see you back here tomorrow, 11:00 a.m. coverage. we also have dnc chair congresswoman debbie wasserman-schultz republican congressman tom pole, florida congressman-elect. he says he will not sign the grover norquist pledge. dennis van roekel, and karen finney and michael steele. don't go anywhere, though. a great show is coming up next. "now" with alex wagner, and we will say merry cliff-mas. >> i'm say merry christmas and merry cliff-mas. >> every second counts, thomas. every second counts. merry cliff-mas to you, my friend. >> thank you. >> are we any closer to a merry cliff-mas, or is a republican caucus packing a stocking full of coal? the house gets set to vote on plan b, speaker john boehner struggles to shimy down the chimney with a deal. we'll have a discussion with luke russert, megan mccartel and -- plus, who better than

joe? we will tell you how the vice president's past could be a guide to comprehensive gun reform. former assistant secretary of state p.j. crowley will weigh in on the new benghazi report and what it pourtends for john kerry. all that when "now" starts in a mere 180 seconds. tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. celebrex can be taken with or without food. and it's not a narcotic. you and your doctor should balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naproxen, and meloxicam have the same cardiovascular warning.

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the red cross was down here all the time. [ man ] they've given us a lot of heart. in times of need, they're there. ♪ [ kerry ] my dad was watching his house burn.